Profile Of An O.H.S. Past President

This new section of the yearbook looks not just at a member of the Society at large, but more specifically, at the out-going president for the year, in this case, 2003. The Yearbook Committee wanted to get behind the formal annual reports and messages, and expose the "real" people who have been our presidents. Next year, we will interview Blaine, so start taking notes, Blaine! We all know the wonderful things the presidents do for our Society. What we wanted to delve into more deeply was their after-meeting interests, their hobbies, their ambitions - their stories.

D-J. Smith joined the Ottawa Horticultural Society right after the Societys centennial celebrations in 1992. She was on her way home and saw some information on a special OHS centennial lecture about garden design being given that evening. She decided to attend and has been an active member ever since.

Her father came from a farm family where the concept of "recreational gardening" was seen as an oxymoron. As a result her gardening interest developed when she found herself in her own rented place and set about to beautify its dreary appearance. She thought plants would be an easy answer. While one could describe her first efforts as failures since she killed most things she planted, it was really a success because she became curious about what she was doing wrong. D-J decided that it was time to learn about plants and how to grow them. The learning experience exposed her to plants other than impatiens and her interest grew.

While she now describes herself as a plantaholic, her favourites remain single "pinwheel" marigolds, any cranesbill, and scented pelargoniums. Even though she has in effect two gardens her own small garden and the garden she shares with Bruce Laforce - her wish list includes more room for new plants. But because of her partnership with Bruce, she is able to have ornamental beds, a small shrubbery, a rose border and a vegetable garden.

Plans for the 2004 garden focus on adding ornamental grasses in her small front yard to create a meadow effect. She is also thinking about planting a colour-coordinated garden with whites, creamy-yellows and blues. She admits though that her plans tend to change when her attention is caught by yet another "must have" plant. Starting plants from seeds provides the selection that she is looking for and the satisfaction of seeing the seedlings grow. A New Years Day tradition is to pour over her favourite seed catalogues - while finishing off holiday candy!! William Dam, OSC for native flowers, and the Floribunda catalogues are her main sources of inspiration. Weeding is her favourite thing about gardening because it allows her tranquil time to sit alone, mulling over issues, solving problems, and just thinking while making the weeded area look beautiful. This contrasts with her work environment where there are constant interruptions.

D-J seems to have improved from her gardening beginnings because both her most memorable success and most memorable failure involve things that grew too well. The first was a blue Australian squash that managed to climb a cedar hedge and produce a crop of very large squash that dangled precariously from ten feet up. She has been banned from growing squash again. The failure involved Kochia. The plants were very prolific seeders and the young seedlings were so attractive that she didnt remove them. Soon, Kochia was everywhere and it took about three years to rid the garden of the, plant.

When D-J isnt gardening, she is browsing through her gardening books that range from coffee table books, books on Japanese gardening, to reprints of authors such as Gertrude Jekyll or Louise Beebe Wilder. Non-gardening interests include researching her family history and the history of the Lower Ottawa Valley where her family comes from. She also likes to knit which she describes as fidgeting with a purpose.

While we have seen D-J "up front" this past year as president, she has also served the society as a director, as convenor of the yearbook committee, as social convenor for a few years, plus working on the public planting and the program committees and for a short while helping on membership. She has helped organize various plant sales as well as the gardeners marketplace when the OHS hosted the District 2 AGM. With Bruce Laforce, she has entered the flower shows and together they also coordinated promotional booths for the Society at various events including past Ottawa Home shows. She tells us that she is looking forward to leaving the podium and again becoming a volunteer helping out where needed.

Please contact the OHS or the author if you wish to republish these articles. © Ottawa Horticultural Society

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